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Associated Press 8y

Mauer scores on error by Gomes in 11th to give Twins 5-4 win

MINNEAPOLIS -- This one was worth the wait for the Minnesota Twins.

Joe Mauer raced home with the winning run when Max Kepler's comebacker ricocheted off pitcher Joe Colon's glove in the 11th inning to give the Twins a rain-delayed 5-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night.

"If you're going to wait that long, it's nice to get out there and get a win in," Mauer said after a game that was delayed by rain for 2 hours, 5 minutes.

Colon (0-1) reached behind his back to try to glove the bouncer and knocked it down. His throw home beat Mauer, but catcher Yan Gomes couldn't handle it and was charged with an error on the play.

"I'm thankful he knocked it down and it got away from him, otherwise they might have turned a double play on me," Kepler said.

Brian Dozier drove in two runs for the Twins, and Trevor May (1-2) pitched the 11th to earn the win. The game was delayed with two outs in the top of the 11th inning. After the long delay, it took the Twins just 13 minutes to win.

Carlos Santana had three hits to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games and drove in two runs for the Indians.

Cleveland committed three errors, including Santana's at first base in the seventh inning that allowed one run to score. Minnesota tied it on a single up the middle by Dozier.

In his second career appearance, Colon walked Mauer, gave up a long double to Miguel Sano and then intentionally walked Dozier before Kepler's comebacker ended a long night.

"It looked to me like Gomer didn't look it into the glove," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "I didn't think we had a play at first, and instead of taking an out like a first baseman, just kind of short-armed it a little bit."

Trevor Bauer gave up four runs -- three earned -- and seven hits with six strikeouts and three walks in six innings for Cleveland.

Tyler Duffey allowed four runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings with three walks and two strikeouts for the Twins.

SCARY MOMENT

The game stopped for several minutes in the seventh when a young boy sitting just to the right of the Indians dugout was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Mike Napoli.

The ball caromed high in the air a full section over, and ballpark personnel rushed to the boy's side. Napoli and the rest of the players on the field looked on with concern, but the boy appeared to be in decent shape as the man he was with carried him up the aisle and to the concourse.

The boy grabbed his hat and put it back on his head and appeared to be alert and looking around as they exited the seating area.

"It's a scary thing and when I saw it was a little kid, I wasn't even thinking about baseball," Napoli said. "I was just hoping he was all right. Hopefully I can find out his name and see if he's all right and maybe take care of him a little bit."

SANO'S D

Sano's double in the 11th moved Mauer into position to score and helped the third baseman atone for some trouble on defense.

Sano made a couple of nifty plays with his arm, including a superb, barehanded pickup and strong throw to get Tyler Naquin in the second inning. But Sano also dropped an easy popup off the bat of Francisco Lindor in foul territory in the seventh inning for an error, then was charged with another one when he muffed a hot shot from Rajai Davis in the eighth.

Sano has seven errors in his last eight games.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Indians: After playing on Friday night in his rehab assignment, OF Michael Brantley was given the day off Saturday. Francona said Brantley wanted to play as he works his way back from a right shoulder injury, but the training staff didn't want to push it too early. He is expected to play again on Sunday. ... RHP Zach McAllister, on the DL since July 7 with right hip discomfort, will start a rehab assignment on Monday.

Twins: CF Byron Buxton was in the lineup for a second straight day and manager Paul Molitor said the knee injury that occurred when Buxton crashed into the wall three games before the All-Star break is behind him now.

UP NEXT

Twins RHP Kyle Gibson (2-5, 5.02 ERA) will face Indians RHP Josh Tomlin (9-2, 3.51) in the series finale. Tomlin has not started since June 6 because of the All-Star break. He gave up eight runs in his last outing against the Tigers.

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